welcome back to the to the big picture i'm john martin coming up in this half hour as conservatives across america continue their all out assault on organized labor farfel unions are becoming a thing of the past as the influence of unions declines could turn into co-ops be a solution for getting americans back to work and getting our economy back on track and nearly three thousand americans were killed on september eleventh washington responded by launching two wars in the middle east to rid the world of terrorism in

well the last ten years over three hundred thousand americans have died from gun violence clear gun violence is far more deadly than terrorism the little washington respond according. in the best of the rest of the news as labor unions fight for their lives in michigan and around the nation many are looking into alternative ways to inject democracy into the workplace the way the traditional labor unions did after world war two and has won so many rights and benefits for workers because they brought working people to the bargaining table with c.e.o.'s and executives crushing the normally totalitarian rule that defines corporate america employee owned a worker cooperatives can do this as well unlike the standard top down business model worker own cooperatives are a gala tarion. their business is completely owned by their employees who make

decisions about the future of the business through the democratic process and all share the wealth created by their businesses where as labor unions brought workers to the table to sit face to face and corporate executives worker own cooperatives get rid of the corporate executives entirely and just bring all the workers to the table to make decisions on their own currently an american worker own cooperatives generate over eight hundred billion dollars for our economy and employ more than ten million workers roughly three million more workers and belong to private sector unions otherwise the worker own cooperative movement is already bigger than the private sector union movement properties are thriving around the rest of the world to the u.n. just name two thousand and twelve is the international year of the cooperative recognizing that more than a billion people on the planet now belong to some sort of cooperative enterprise and spanish based on the world's largest employer cooperative proves that this model works not just for small businesses but also for major transnational businesses as well on that are gone which is completely owned and operated by its

more than eighty thousand workers is divided into two hundred fifty six different companies dealing everything from old fashion manufacturing to finance to retail global economy increasingly hostile to working people cooperatives may just be our salvation and the new movie is out to tell the cooperative story it's called shift change and it premiered earlier this year take a look. at all the millions and then. i wrote here as an employee also one that i have a say in what happens in the company. we have a stake we have skin in the game is this a real business goals to me. there's just this environment you know love what we're doing. and it's very meaningful to us and we all want to work

. i have worked at large corporations where there's a huge hierarchy it takes a lot of energy to operate in an environment like that we put our energy towards our projects and our products. joining me now are the producers of shift change melissa young and marc to work and thank you to you both thanks for joining us thanks for having us on the first full mark was there anything in that set up that i got wrong or that you'd like to add to a fine point the numbers you gave for work or cooperate is in this country it's actually for employee owned businesses in general and not all of those are managed democratically by the people that work which is not to say they're not a good thing because an employee owned company is much less likely to move away to set up operations in china for example is the jobs here for you in companies if the company does better the people who work there are benefits so there's an incentive to work harder and actually see

a result from that. so what's the number for actual we'll have to look there for a few work. and know how and i don't know how many people we don't know so hundreds there are hundreds of these businesses very successful businesses. and incredible range of kinds of work. but i don't know what the total number is i've visited i think it's called peninsula engineering in madison this and you need it if you just missed that thank you and and union cabin interviewed people from both those organizations there's some really extraordinary stories out there melissa what are you what are your favorite stories that are told in this movie. well of course it was wonderful to visit longer gone. to see a place that's been in operation for fifty sixty years and so many people it was a very convincing example that we could organize. an economy around more cooperative principles and still have it be very successful uncooperative in the

enterprise market how. just the most of them. but i love saying. it's most engineering i love the quick change that imports coffee and chocolate partly because i've spent a lot of time in latin. some of the producing companies that countries that they work with and i really liked visiting seeing that cooperated have begun with immigrant workers and that is an area that's really growing. and the cooperative sector. mark we saw in two thousand and one i think it was i was down in argentina and that this horrible economic crash in just happened in two thousand and two whatever it was december two thousand and one ok but then it was two thousand and two that i was down there because it was after their two yeah we didn't see you. i was i was giving a talk and i was the family that i was staying with lived in the kind of affluent

suburbs but not super rich but it was what was startling was at that point in time about every third or fourth house in this neighborhood the suburban neighborhood had furniture out in front with for sale prices i mean people were there were so many people out of work and so many people devastated that people were literally selling their televisions and their sofas in order to make their mortgage payments and things and yet argentina pulled themselves to a large extent out of that in some part by people going in occupying factories that were about to leave are there lessons for us to learn from that as we are in this economic crisis right and other stories like that quite a lot and. we were there in that same time period and we made two prelims actually about principally about those worker cooperatives so there were hundreds of exam counters the cases tens of thousands of people where the ownership of a company the manager the owner said we can't do business anymore we're going bankrupt we're going to shut the doors you guys don't have a job anymore and in those situations the situation was desperate there was like

forty percent unemployment so people who in those situations become a look at each other and say well if we don't have this we have nothing and what are our families going to do to eat and so again in hundreds of situations they actually said when they were told don't comply they come back on monday. sometimes they just didn't leave other times they did leave but got in touch with each other over the weekend and monday or maybe a week later came in sometimes broke the lock on the door and got back inside and began making goods again and so one thing is it took a lot of courage to do it took a lot of nerve to do that i'm not sure i would be able to do that so i admire people for that kind of call that you didn't also to a certain extent take maybe not necessarily active but the complicity or the support of the government i mean we saw since sato's manufacturing company in the central united states i think. being illinois excuse me being taken apart by bain capital and literally shipped brick by brick it overseas to be to be that

manufacture things and the workers tried to buy it it was a profitable enterprise they tried to buy it and bain said no we'll make more money running it overseas there wasn't a legal apparatus for that so the situation in argentina in some of those situations the details are different in each of the hundreds of companies that are in some of them the company had borrowed money from the government for example and then ran out on the it didn't pay off the loan so then the workers would say listen give us a chance to get it going again we can make a go of it these guys just ran out on the money that they owe you. they can't do the same again so the circumstances worse were somewhat different in that you know and then there was the the other piece of it is that in two thousand and three a new president was elected who in my judgment is similar to franklin roosevelt in our country and he sort of said to bankruptcy courts into the judges and so on back off give these companies a chance the country is in a rough spot let them see if they can make a go of it we just have a half

a minute left melissa i'm curious do you do you see that kind of thing happening in the united states actually there is. an effort and chicago right now something called new era co-operative that is. buying out. they actually sat in at their company at a certain point. and are forming a work or cooperative around producing one doesn't also this is a growing movement across you know this is i think so that is a wonderful movie a shift change sure check it out when it comes to you melissa mark thank you both thank you it's much appreciated. it's the good the bad in the very very ugly the good has brought the joy into

a company has announced that they're going to begin selling a gender neutral version of their popular easy bake oven toy for decades that toy has only been marketed toward little girls but the company has decided to make a change after meeting with a new jersey girl who advocated for a gender neutral version removing stereotypical gender roles from our society is a key step towards fully embracing the community let's hope more toy companies follow in hasbro's steps and decide to go against traditional on. the bad club for growth a conservative advocacy group is arguing republican urging republicans in congress to vote against the sixty billion dollar against any relief package your son is going to take up this week in a letter the club for growth says it will score a vote for sandy really by republicans against them and it also calls on lawmakers republican lawmakers doff that all money spent for disaster relief with spending cuts to other social programs course republicans holding disaster relief hostage is

nothing new they did it after hurricane irene last fall and after the devastating set of tornadoes last spring this latest threat is more proof that for republicans partisan policy politics and devastating the middle class comes before the health and well being of their constituents. but they say that they're supposed to be serving and the very very ugly pastor sam morris while the most religious leaders across america spent their time this weekend comforting those afflicted by the connecticut shooting massacre of tennessee pastor sam morris chose to get. hurt and his reason for the surety shooting is that it happened because our public schools spend too much time teaching evolution and how to be a home so instead of trying to help people cope with the tragedy morris chose to use it to attack the community and that it's very very. coming up lawmakers in washington have spent billions of dollars and started two wars in the

name of combat in terrorism in the middle east and protecting american citizens but are they ready to put the same efforts into fighting an evil that's already claimed far more lives than terrorism ever could. the worst you're going to think the only white house to give it to a radio guy and pull out of a zero minutes from a quick hospital i want to watch what we're about to give you never seen anything like this on cold.

war like. the indians leave. iraq. there's going to be on the tarmac. prime. i mean i'm.

i think. you know the news we've brought you many stories about governor don siegelman the former democratic governor of alabama who has become one of america's most high profile political prisoners he is in prison now and karl rove and the bush justice department have their fingerprints all over this wrongful conviction since that conviction governor siegelman his daughter dana has been working tirelessly to get her father out of jail and cleared of all charges dana joins us now from our los angeles studio to give us an update on her dad status you know welcome back to the

program thank you so much tom for having me again thanks for joining us what was karl rove's role in sending your dad to jail. well karl rove his job was to be a g.o.p. operative that is to eliminate the opponent that is to raise enough money to support his candidates and to make sure that the laws and the lawmakers and our court system would reflect the ideals of the republican party a lot of this was done behind the back of republicans which is why on a recent interview two republicans came forward and spoke out against karl rove that was former congressman parker griffith from alabama and former attorney general of arizona grant woods both of these republicans talked about karl rove's fingerprints being all over this case not just because a whistleblower came forward and said she spoke to crawl rove about prosecuting my father but because they personally know rove's. tactics they've

worked alongside his operatives they've seen him that judges that u.s. attorneys and so there's really no doubt that rove. was intimately involved in my my father's prosecution his wrongful conviction and of course his imprisonment and i want to draw an analogy as well that our president is so fortunate in a strange and twisted way to be a minority and have this bizarre you know arabic muslim name barack hussein obama. because he was never perceived as being a threat like my father was my father was one of the southeast longest running democrats was the only person not just democrat the only person to hold alabama alabama's highest elected offices he was touted as

a dark horse candidate for president this would have been nearing the same time that president barack obama would have been touted candidate how though not as likely as don siegelman because honestly the democrats would have preferred a southern democrat a white someone that. the rest of the country might have not seen as suspicious and so karl rove never saw all brok hussein obama as someone that he should target someone that they should wrongfully indict and you're just trying to pass and the role of overestimated your father's threat and underestimated president obama's trip politically to the republican party. well it's just like being born a jewish christian american instead of a palestinian i mean at some point or another we have to recognize when power cripples certain people over others and in our country we have corporate control of

our court system now and in dad's case the judge presiding over the court was not only a good friend of george w. bush and the republican senators and vetted him but he owned defense contracts and was making millions hundreds of millions off the war in iraq and afghanistan and if those are the types of people that we have in control of our country then those of us who are being targeted have to stand up for those who have been and helped them get out and i understand you just have a minute left i understand that you've you're trying to reach joe biden as well as president obama in an effort to pardon your dad can you tell us about that what what can people do. well i have started a petition at three dashed on dot org that's free hyphen down and out of work the best thing to do as good educated find out the facts once you're educated go to our take action pay join my mailing list a list serve i will send you an e-mail and i will tell you this is what i'm trying now you know call this person right first and these are the media people that we're

targeting and you can get involved in helping free my father but not just free my father but i want you to know what's been going on in our country how the democrats especially in the south especially in alabama have been crippled have been cut off at the knees and we need the rest of the country support if we're ever going to gain our strength back and if we're ever going to get real good politicians the ones that are really activists like my father who is mostly elected by the african-american community if we're going to get them out of prison so that they can write these wrongs there you go dan siegelman thanks so much for being with us thank you tom for having me to join the movement to free governor don siegelman go to free day. dot org.

in the coming weeks we'll find out just how far our elected lawmakers are willing to go to protect our children from future gun massacres we already know how far lawmakers are willing to go to protect us from middle eastern terrorists group that has killed nothing close to the number of americans who die every day because of the n.r.a. if al qaeda were to strike the united states for example in the last remaining weeks of this year and kill as many americans as sir you know i love it's the carnage still wouldn't compare to what guns do to americans every single year so far in two thousand and twelve more than nine thousand americans have died by way of the gun almost one hundred thousand were shot just this last saturday alone one hundred ninety people in america were shot and in newtown connecticut twenty first graders are dead gunned down by an assault rifle borrowed from a gun mom. it's interesting and instructive to compare our national response to

muslim religious extremist killers versus our response to largely white christian extremists killers at the end of two thousand and one a british islamic fundamentalist named richard reid tried to take down an american airlines flight headed to miami by igniting a bomb hidden in a chute he failed no one died but extreme measures were immediately put into place in airports around the nation forcing us to take off our shoes before we could board an airplane and more than a decade later we still had to take off our shoes at the airport and two thousand and six british police claim they foiled a terror plot aimed at ten transatlantic flights headed to the united states in which liquid explosives were to be used a lot never happened no one died but again extreme security measures were taken to ban all liquids and gels over three ounces to being carried beyond the security checkpoint at the airport that ban is still in place in two thousand and nine the alleged nigerian islamist tried to blow up a northwest airlines flight headed detroit by lighting his underwear on fire he failed no one died but in another hysterical and expensive response we spent

billions on shared off x. ray porno scanners and for those who didn't want the radiation are growing and breasts are thoroughly examined by and these three terror plots though never carried out and not responsible for the death of a single american triggered radical and very profitable security changes that have trashed our civil liberties and to add insult to injury epidemiology epidemiologists tell us that more people will die from cancer from the church affects very poor machines causing cancer than have died in any year the past decade from terrorism in the united states when the danger is terrorism our policymakers and lawmakers respond quickly with frankly little concern about either cost or civil liberties with our national epidemic of gun violence. it's an entirely different story after thirteen people were murdered in columbine in one thousand nine hundred nine not a single thing was done to address gun safety just like nothing was done after the

d.c. sniper killed ten people in two thousand and two or after thirty two people were gunned down at virginia tech university in two thousand and seven or after a deranged man with very expensive assault weapons killed six people in tucson and shot congresswoman gabby giffords to the brain in two thousand and eleven despite that attack being so close to home for members of congress still no action was taken on gun safety just like no action was taken after the aurora colorado theater shooting this year that killed twelve people and nothing was done after the sikh temple massacre at oak creek wisconsin this year that killed six people had any of those mass shootings been done by al qaida and called terrorism our national response would have been swift and decisive and arguably hysterical instead we got optus which is in part because al qaeda didn't make the smart investment the cold remington did and get the n.r.a. to lobby for them just this year alone the n.r.a. has spent nearly nineteen million dollars much of it from weapons manufacturers

here in d.c. and across america to make sure that the gun industry can continue to make huge profits those investments keep in place the sale of assault weapons like the bushmaster which was used last friday to murder twenty children those investments keep in place the sale of high capacity clips like the ones believe used last friday to murder twenty children as investments keep in place background check loopholes which put guns into the hands of criminals in the mentally ill and put in place numerous limitations on our own government's ability to track guns or their users. ironically in two thousand and eleven the n.r.a. had beat back a gun control measure that would have prevented those on the f.b.i.'s terror watch list can't get on an airplane would have prevented them from purchasing a gun they killed a son so in the future should al qaeda carry out the next mass shooting in america they may well have been able to do so because of the efforts of the n.r.a. money is another factor contracts to defense corporations and security firms after

nine eleven have exploded as both presidents george w. bush and president barack obama expanded our war economy and constructed a fierce security stayed home protecting the lives of americans is given as the main reason for the x. rays and growing checks of michael chertoff is made millions selling those airport porno scanners similarly there's enormous money to be made in the manufacture and sale of firearms at there's very little money to be made in the restriction of fire . the n.r.a. is second amendment freedom argument is just a cover for the real reason why they don't want americans to enjoy freedom from gun nuts there are millions in arguably billions in profits to be made keeping open the flow of deadly weapons no matter how many kids' lives are put at risk of tell the truth yet are as hands are far bloodier than al qaeda is we as a nation wouldn't tolerate a muslim suicide bombing of a school bus that killed twenty first graders so why do we tolerate mass shootings

that do the same there are more than twenty mass shootings every year in america and over one hundred people are shot every day in america but the n.r.a. tells us we can do something about guns the rest of the world the developed world figured this out a long time ago in countries from australia to england from switzerland to israel you have to prove that you actually have a need for a gun in order to either buy or own one or buy or own ammunition. we should do the same here in america and for those who actually need a weapon we should be say whether it's for hunting or for in their line of work let's at least require the same proof of proficiency and insurance that we would require from licensed drivers increasingly americans are recognizing the bloodsoaked gun lobby as the pariah as they are we've done far more damage to america than osama bin laden ever dreamed. and that's the way it is the night

tuesday december eighteenth two thousand and twelve and don't forget democracy begins with you get out there get active take your it see.

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